Negative refraction in hyperbolic hetero-bicrystals.

Sternbach, A J; Moore, S L; Rikhter, A; Zhang, S; Jing, R; Shao, Y; Kim, B S Y; Xu, S et al. · Science · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We visualized negative refraction of phonon polaritons, which occurs at the interface between two natural crystals. The polaritons-hybrids of infrared photons and lattice vibrations-form collimated rays that display negative refraction when passing through a planar interface between the two hyperbolic van der Waals materials: molybdenum oxide (MoO<sub>3</sub>) and isotopically pure hexagonal boron nitride (h<sup>11</sup>BN). At a special frequency ω<sub>0</sub>, these rays can circulate along closed diamond-shaped trajectories. We have shown that polariton eigenmodes display regions of both positive and negative dispersion interrupted by multiple gaps that result from polaritonic-level repulsion and strong coupling.